I’ve now spent two nights playing Metroid Prime, a couple of hours all told. I remember playing the game around five years ago, but I didn’t finish it then. I can see why easily now: while the game is quite beautiful and has some interesting ideas, it’s also rather repetitive. Most condemning is the player flow control common to the genre of action adventure ever since whenever. Read the rest of this entry »

I played my first game of Go on a full-size board yesterday. Wasn’t my idea, either; Mikko said that he usually plays on a large board, so I obliged. In retrospect I guess I was clearly the stronger player in the game, so we should have had a handicap of some kind. Can’t know without trying, though. Read the rest of this entry »

Ho ho ho, as some of you might already know, I’m going to Gencon this year. (That assumes that they don’t have to cancel because of their bankrupcty or something, of course.) One big reason is that I’ve wanted to participate in the Forge booth for a long time, and for some reason I have this feeling of closure, that if I don’t go this year it won’t be pertinent next year anymore. (Perhaps I’ve just let too many years pass without going or something.) Another reason is my most fine and excellent zombie game (still only in Finnish) I’m going to produce for the English-language market and publish at Gencon. A third reason to go is that I was thrust into the role of republishing The Shadow of Yesterday by surprise, which is more than enough reason to go shop it around like a mad elephant. Read the rest of this entry »

OK, so both Jukka and Sami raised the question earlier, so I feel compelled to outline it in some greater length. That question is, of course, whether rpg illustrations debase women and how come that’s so. The matter has been extensively dealt with by many writers, some of them women (which might certainly give them some more leverage in complaining, if being offended justifies an argument). Read the rest of this entry »

OK, I’m going back to the topic from last month, which I chose and choose to frame in personal terms: I don’t like the kind of fantasy modern fantasy adventure roleplaying games like D&D and Exalted seem to offer nowadays. This being a personal opinion does not, of course, preclude looking for reasons and values behind the opinion. Read the rest of this entry »